Slowing home sales aren’t dampening interest in building high-rise condominium towers near John Wayne Airport.
A couple of planned projects targeted for industrial land along Jamboree Road in Irvine would raise the number of condo towers built or planned for Irvine to 13.
The latest proposals include a pair of high-rises at the corner of Jamboree and Dupont roads. The 7.5-acre industrial site once housed a medical device unit of Tyco International Ltd.
Irvine-based consultant Starpointe Ventures is handling the zoning process for an undisclosed developer. Irvine Planning Department officials said they’re in the early stages of reviewing the plans.
The proposed towers would be 14 stories each, holding a total of 220 homes, according to preliminary plans.
Along with the towers, the former Tyco site could hold 20 two-story townhomes, 24 live-work units, 190,000 square feet of office space and 55,145 square feet of shops, including a grocery store, according to plans.
The site is just down the road from Opus West Corp.’s three-tower condo project at Campus Drive and Jamboree.
The Tyco redevelopment site is across the street from the Irvine campus of Allergan Inc. The drug maker is one of several companies in the area that have raised concerns about putting residents next to plants and warehouses.
Allergan has bought several commercial buildings around its campus to create a buffer from homes planned in the area.
Contamination Issues
The former Tyco land hosts an empty 108,000-square-foot industrial building. The property had been on the market for lease, but was taken off the market until contamination issues are taken care of, said Larry Schuler, first vice president for the Newport Beach office of CB Richard Ellis Group Inc.
“Once it is cleaned up, the site will probably be redeveloped,” Schuler said.
General Investment Funds of Washington, D.C., owns the land, according to CoStar Group Inc. Xerox Corp., the tenant prior to Tyco, is responsible for the environmental clean up of the site, Schuler said.
The Tyco redevelopment could have an effect on its neighbor to the east. Cisco-Linksys LLC, a unit of Cisco Systems Inc., rents the 120,300-square-foot industrial building next door to the Tyco building, at 18582 Teller Ave.
The building is up for sale. The Irvine office of Colliers International Inc. is marketing the property. It’s believed that the Linksys property would face similar environmental issues as the Tyco property. A buyer could look to redevelop the site into housing or shops, brokers said.
Linksys, a maker of home networking routers and other gear, has 50,000 square feet of space in University Research Park next to the University of California, Irvine. The company reportedly has been looking to expand at the office park.
Linksys isn’t the only company in Irvine that might end up moving out of an industrial building to make way for homes.
Costa Mesa-based Hurley International LLC, a unit of Nike Inc., also may have to relocate. Hurley leases an 85,000-square-foot warehouse at 2900 McCabe Way to the east of the San Diego (I-405) Freeway near Jamboree.
Hurley, a surfwear maker, uses the property as a distribution center. Menlo Worldwide of Palo Alto runs the center for Hurley.
The Hurley site could be redeveloped into a major housing project. Los Angeles-based homebuilder KB Home is in escrow to buy the building.
KB: 314 Homes
KB Home has submitted plans for a 314-home development on the 4-acre site that includes the Hurley facility. The homebuilder is planning to put up a 16-story tower with 138 homes, a four-story low-rise building with 125 homes, 10 townhomes, a nine-story tower with 18 homes and 20 more in a five-story building.
Construction at the site could begin by next year, said Edwin Sundareson, director of development for the Irvine office of KB Home Coastal Inc. Permitting and zoning issues still need to be completed, according to city officials.
Hurley moved storage and shipping operations to the Irvine site in 2003. The building previously was a data center run by defunct TelePlace Inc. of Florida.
The slew of high-rises planned for Irvine range from 13 to 18 stories. There now are 41 projects totaling about 15,000 homes planned for the Irvine Business Complex, the area near the airport long known for its offices, plants and warehouses.
The plans include 13 towers, including two already built by Bosa Development Corp., totaling about 1,700 homes.
The proposed Irvine area towers are slightly shorter than some of the other residential towers planned across Orange County.
Nexus Cos. has started construction on two 25-story buildings in Santa Ana. Lennar Corp. is planning high-rise condo towers in Anaheim’s Platinum Triangle that could go higher.
